The present invention relates generally to photographic apparatus and, more particularly, to compact photographic apparatus of the self-developing type and methods of operation thereof.
Heretofore, a wide variety of photographic apparatus of the self-developing type for exposing and processing film units has been proposed, such as cameras, printers, camera backs, slide copiers, etc. Exemplary photographic apparatus of this type are described and illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,854,903; 2,930,301; 3,079,849; 3,270,653; 3,405,619; 3,455,692; 3,767,405; 3,852,781; 4,114,166; 4,132,471; 4,172,647; 4,341,454; 4,855,769; 4,937,676; 5,103,249; 5,453,804; and, 5,715,234. Typically, such cameras, printers and the like use self-developing film assemblages of either the peel-apart or integral kind. Cameras of the above type are cooperable with film systems whereby the film frames are driven from the camera by some internal mechanism or are manually withdrawn by an operator exerting a pulling force on a film strip. During such film advance, the film frames engage pressure applying mechanisms whereby the latter act to rupture pods containing processing fluid on the frames and then spread the latter over the film unit in order to initiate processing of the latent image.
While the foregoing are commercially successful and operate in a reliable manner, there is nevertheless a continuing desire for providing a low cost camera of the above type, especially one that is compact in size and is otherwise adapted for use with a film assemblage that is correspondingly compact in size.